On average, how many hands do you get per hour in: Holdem, 7 Stud, Omaha?

Answer 1:

In San Diego, I tracked the # of hands per dealer (per 1/2 hour) over a 3 month period, as part of the dealer’s performance evaluation. The results for Hold’em and 7-stud H/L…. Top dealers were averaging 19 hands in Hold’em
Bottom group was averaging 17 hands.
For Stud H/L
Top dealer averages 17
Bottom dealer 14.
Of course the number of players at the table and how fast they act on their hands has an affected on the #’s.

Answer 2:

Depends on the dealer, the table and the limits. My best guess is
Hold’em 35
7 Stud 25
Omaha 30

Answer 3:

Actually, the higher limits move faster. The button charge games have more chips in the pots(dollar chips in the 3&6) and more players have to put chips in the pot before cards are dealt: the two blinds and the button collection. Also, generally, the players in the yellow chip games and above are more experienced and act faster on their hands.

Since Canterbury opened I’ve been tracking my results. In 11 hours of 6-12 hold’em, I’ve recorded a win rate of 4.8 bb/hr. In 15 hours of 10-20, I’ve averaged a loss of 4.6 bb/hr. Needless to say; I’m inclined to stick to 6-12 from now on. But do these numbers really mean anything yet? It seems like my style of game works better against the more passive 6-12, and it seems like I’ve had great cards at 6-12. Conversely, even other players at 10-20 have commented on how unlucky I have been there. I think there is a psychological factor in play now, too, right now I feel like I just cannot win at 10-20 no matter what. Any advice (other than “seat open in my 10-20 game”)? Is there a huge leap in the nature of the players and the game from 6-12 to 10-20, or am I putting too much stock in the results of too few hours of play? I think I’m going to play 6-12 exclusively for many hours and see what kind of long term win rate I can maintain.

Answer 1:

If I told you the truth about how many hours of poker you need to play before you can be confident that your results mirror what’s expected, you’d crawl into a corner and die. So, I’ll just tell you that there probably aren’t many regular big-winning, long-time players who haven’t lost money over a 500-hour period. There are many big winners who claim they haven’t, however. But they don’t keep records. Part of the reason for the large fluctuations are that game conditions are not stable and players tend to divide their time among different limits. The closest I ever came to stability of outcome was 25 years ago in a $5 ante, $20 straight limit draw poker game. I never had a losing month over two or so years.

Answer 2:

The number of hours you need to play before you can determine whether you have a statistically significant positive win rate depends on two things, under the usual set of assumptions: The size of your win rate itself, and the standard deviation of your hourly win rates. If the former is small (close to 0) and/or the latter is large, the number of hours you need to determine significance can be quite large. In fact it is quite large even if those are not the case. As a rule of thumb: with a win rate of around 2BB/hr with a typical SD, you’d probably need to play at least 100 hours. If you were a more mediocre player with a larger SD, you might have to play for years!

Answer 3:

Others have already said, these results are almost meaningless for purposes of determining in which game you have the highest EV. I have been playing the low limit games out at Canterbury (4/8 and 6/12). I have avoided the 10/20 because I don’t have the bankroll to play in these. But based on my observations the 10/20 is not typically tougher than the 6/12. In fact, some times it seems that the opposite is true. I have avoided the 6/12 a few times because I did not like the looks of the game and figured that I’d be better off in any 4/8 game. The one time I did play it, it was a very nice game with at least one pure calling station and several loose players. Later in the evening I saw the calling station in the 10/20 game trying to get even. Many of the 6/12 players seem to be rocks that play well, but don’t want to risk the higher games. Tight cautious players can be exploited but not as easily or for as much as loose aggressive ones. If your bankroll can handle it, I would keep one eye on the 10/20 game at all times and jump in when it looks especially soft. I think that you have jumped to the wrong conclusion if you think that the 6/12 is significantly better than the 10/20.

With reference to Pai Gow Poker, as played in a casino:
QUESTION #1
I know that you form two hands with your seven cards – a five card poker hand and a two-card poker hand. Does this also mean that you place two separate bets on the table? IF SO, how do you do this since there is only one numbered circle where you are supposed to place your bet. IF NOT, how are the bets split if you win one and lose the other? (Or is that a push and no money exchanges hands?)
QUESTION #2
Is more frequent in a casino to see the dice method used to determine the order the hands get dealt to, or do most casinos use an electronic random number generator?
QUESTION #3
Can anybody explain the Banker role to me? (I know this is not a simple question.) Is the dealer always the banker? Is the banker always the dealer? What about at home games? What about online games…in online games can the player assume the role of banker?

Answer 1:

>QUESTION #1
You only bet once. If the dealer beats both your 2 and 5 card hands, then the dealer takes your money. If you beat both the dealer’s 2 and 5 car hands, then you win. If you each win one, then it is a push.
>QUESTION #2
Most of the casinos I have been to in Laughling, use the digital counters (rotators). I have seen both in Vegas; however I couldn’t say which is used more.
>QUESTION #3
All the games that I have played have the house acting as banker. I am not sure, but I would venture to say that only places that can’t have a lot of table games (ie reservation casinos) might use a not house bank. Someone here will probably
be able to answer that better than I can.

Answer 2:

>QUESTION #1
There is only one bet. If the dealer wins both hands, you lose your bet. If you win both hands, you win even money minus a commission (between 5% to 10% depending where you play). It’s a push if you win one hand and lose the other. The 5-card hand MUST be higher than the 2-card hand (that means you cannot have a pair of Aces for the 2-card hand and a pair of Kings for the 5-card hand, etc.).
>QUESTION #2
The dice method is mainly to cater to the Asian crowd, who tends to have some distrust of electronic gages or believes that they’ll have more control the “luck” if dice are used.
>QUESTION #3

Playing as the banker means basically you’re taking over playing as the house. The other players are playing against you rather than the dealer. In order to play as the banker, you must put up enough money to cover all the bets on the table. If you catch a good hand, you can make a lot of money. If not, lose a lot. But I think it works out to better odds than making a big bet on a single hand because you may not lose to all the other players. Some casinos offer a special bonus where you put in an extra one or five dollars for what is called a “Fortune” hand. If your hand makes a straight or better, you win extra money. They usually have a chart on the table for the payoffs if they offer this.

Answer 3:

>QUESTION #1
Other people have answered this, but they’ve left out a significant detail. If your two card and/or your five card hand exactly ties with the banker, it counts as a banker win. Example:
You have: AA542 TT
Banker has: JJ987 TT
You win the five card hand, you tie the two card hand, the tie goes to the Banker. Therefore you each win one of the two hands, and the whole hand is a push. This is where the Banker gets their edge.
>QUESTION #2
In Nevada, the electronic RNG is much more common, in my experience. In California, the dice are more common, perhaps even exclusively used.
>QUESTION #3
Others have outlined the banker role. The dealer is not always the banker. In Nevada, the dealer will usually bank unless someone else asks to. In California, at small games, folks at the table will usually bank. At bigger money games, the banking will usually be dominated by a guy with an enormous mound of high valued chips.

I know this is a basic question for most everyone, but I am consistently confusing the hand values in Omaha 8 or better hi lo split. Your help is appreciated. Which of the following hands is low and why? 

Hand a:               Ac 4c 8c 4h 

Hand b:               7s 3s 2s 8d 

Board cards:        10h  7c 8s Jc 5s 

Answer 1:

Well, player A has 8754A. Player B has 87532. 

Now, let’s say for a moment that they had two different hands: KQJT2 and KQJ98. Since player 1 has a higher fourth card, he would be high, correct? In the same way, Player B’s ’3′ is lower than player A’s ’4′. so Player B gets the low. 

Answer 2:

Or to fully explain: 

Hand a’s lo hand is: 
Ac 4c from hand and 5s 7c 8s from board. 
Hand b’s lo hand is 
3s 2s from hand and 5s 7c 8s from board. 

So a has a 8-7-5-4-A hand and b has a 8-7-5-3-2 hand. Therefore A’s hand is higher on the 4th card as a kicker. Therefore B gets the lo pot. (B also has the better high hand in playing for the hi pot). 

Answer 3:

Ace is the lowest card, but low hands are compared like all poker hands, first by type of hand (in this case, no-pair), then by rank starting highest-ranked in your hand. So, for 8754A, the A is the lowest card in the hand.  It’s used ONLY to break ties if both hands “start” with 8754. Your confusion isn’t that A is the lowest card, it’s that hands are compared using the high card first.  Aside from the fact that Ace is counted low and straights and flushes are ignored, the comparison is “worst 5-card hand”.  Figure out which no-pair hand would win if it were regular high poker, and give the pot to the other hand. Thus, 8765A loses to 76543 (straights and flushes are ignored for low, by the way).  The highest card is compared first, so it doesn’t matter that the 8-high hand has an Ace, the fact that it has an 8 kills it compared to the 7-high hand.